After holding their nerves to score a late goal that halted India from cruising to a win in their opening game on Monday, Pakistan put up a dominant performance against hosts Indonesia to remain unbeaten in the pool A matches at the Hero Asia Cup here at the state-of-the-art GBK Sports Arena on Tuesday. With this win, Pakistan kept their hopes intact to make it to the Super 4s of the tournament, which is a World Cup Qualifier.
“Yesterday’s match was good, we had the chances to win but could not utilize the opportunities we created. Nonetheless, we are here with a young team and a draw against India and a good win against Indonesia is a confidence booster for them,” expressed Umar Bhutta, Captain of the Pakistan team.
Getting off to a strong start, Pakistan scored a flurry of goals against hosts Indonesia in the first quarter. Ajaz Ahmad (2′), Abdul Rana (4′), Manan Abdul (6′) and Rizwan Ali (15′) scored goals in the first quarter to fetch their team a solid 4-0 lead.
Mubashir Ali (16′), Abdul Rana (17′), Ali Shan (19′), Manan Abdul (19′) and Rizwan Ali (25′) broke no sweat in extending the lead to 9-0 by the end of the second quarter.
In the third quarter, Ali Ghazanfar (35′) scored a field goal to take Pakistan’s score to 10-0 while Rizwan Ali (43′) scored his third goal of the match through a penalty corner. Moin Shakeel (45′) and Ajaz Ahmad (49′) further extended the lead to 13-0 to seal the winner’s points.
“The team is focused on earning a spot for the World Cup in India. Indonesia is a lower ranked team, and we tried our best to score as many goals as we could because in the last game against India, we could not score from the chances we created,” added Bhutta after the big win.
